In the Polynesian island nation of Tuvalu – halfway between Hawaii and Australia – climate change is not an abstraction but a daily reality: rising tides disrupt the lives of many.

A new video installation in the Australian Museum Atrium, Tuvalu is a three-channel work by acclaimed Samoa-born, Sydney-based artist Angela Tiatia.

"The Pacific is the canary in the global mine. We can see a glimpse of the challenges we may face in our collective future by looking at life in some of our smallest nations.

Tuvalu is one of the world’s most endangered nations, sitting at an average of less than two meters above sea level. It is a staggeringly beautiful place that has a complex culture stretching back thousands of years.

But we are facing the seemingly inevitable prospect of losing Tuvalu over the coming decades as it gradually slips beneath the rising waters now bubbling from underground to the surface.

This work is lament to what we are losing." – Angela Tiatia

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